[Aeil]

There's so many where do you start?

Goodkind, obviously, with his delusional ravings
Eddings, same ol' same ol'
Gemmel, see above, really liked his early ones but the later ones went nowhere
Jordan, lost the plot, I thought I bought the penultimate book about 3 books ago??
Ian Irvine, reading the second book of his second series, won't be reading anymore.
Last but by no means least, Gormenghast, utter dross.

I'm sure there's more but I can never remember the names of books and my collection is in boxes in a storage container

[drinksinbars]

Shryval;116084 said:

I really hope she accidentally slips a few vampires in. Has Jesus and Vampires been done yet? Maybe the vampires rescue Christ from his crucifixion, becomes their saviour. Years later the cross is their sign but those horrible humans loathe it.

jesus was in mennoch the devil.


i was pretty dissapoointed by jonathon strange and mr norrell. It had some good elements, but i recall being quite unimpressed by and large and havent had any urge to reread it, which is a bad sign.

[Aptorian]

drinksinbars;117141 said:

jesus was in mennoch the devil.


i was pretty dissapoointed by jonathon strange and mr norrell. It had some good elements, but i recall being quite unimpressed by and large and havent had any urge to reread it, which is a bad sign.

Is that the Anne Rice book?

Where Lestat the Vampire is offered a seat in hell by the devil, see's heaven, hell and watches the crucifixion. Then there's some crap about him stealing Veronicas washing cloth or what ever and Lestat inadvertantly refuels christianity... now that was a long load of bullcrap.

[Werthead]

Gooch;116118 said:

Pandora's Star by Peter Hamilton -

I loved his Night's Dawn series, but this book simply lumbered and waned. I view it as a misfire. Usually writing and plotting gets better as the writer grows. Instead, more words, less plot, and less steam ahead. Just ponderous, despite he's a quality writer.

Interesting, given its pretty much unanimously favourable critical reception. But I agree it takes a while longer than Night's Dawn to get going, but once it does the old 'PFH' effect kicks in as good as ever. The second book has some serious pacing issues though.

[Sir Thursday]

Gooch;116118 said:

Pandora's Star by Peter Hamilton -

I loved his Night's Dawn series, but this book simply lumbered and waned. I view it as a misfire. Usually writing and plotting gets better as the writer grows. Instead, more words, less plot, and less steam ahead. Just ponderous, despite he's a quality writer.

I quite enjoyed Pandora's Star - the first 400 pages or so were an amazing dive into a completely different world, albeit one (temporarily) bereft of the action that characterised the Night's Dawn Trilogy. That section made the conflict that eventually arises much more potent and interesting to my eyes...though I was slightly annoyed at the cliffhanger

Spoiler

(pun intended )

ending. I would agree with Werthead that Judas Unchained wasn't as good - for a resolving book too much new information about the world and the situation was revealed (plus he sort of returned to his DEM obsession). I'll be interested to see how he handles his follow up sequence (The Void Trilogy, I think)

Sir Thursday

[Dolorous Menhir]

I've read every book Peter F Hamilton has published, and - excepting the short stories - I think he is incapable of writing a good ending.

Read one of his books and it doesn't bother you so much, but once you've read two or three the pattern is undeniable.

It's forgivable in Night's Dawn - possibly because I read that first - but it's a huge flaw in his writing. Misspent Youth is the prime example, the ending is just horrible.

And it is a shame, because he builds worlds and writes action beautifully.

[Sir Thursday]

Dolorous Menhir said:

I've read every book Peter F Hamilton has published, and - excepting the short stories - I think he is incapable of writing a good ending.

Read one of his books and it doesn't bother you so much, but once you've read two or three the pattern is undeniable.

It's forgivable in Night's Dawn - possibly because I read that first - but it's a huge flaw in his writing. Misspent Youth is the prime example, the ending is just horrible.

And it is a shame, because he builds worlds and writes action beautifully.

Fallen Dragon Spoilers:

Spoiler

I don't really consider Time Travel a Deus Ex Machina myself, so I was satified with the conclusion to this one...although the Fallen Dragon itself is powerful, it's power is not total...

The A Second Chance at Eden collection has some very good short stories in it - most of them have a neat twist to conclude them, and they are pretty much DEM free (except perhaps for the one with Calvert in it...and the DEM is kind of the point in that one)


Sir Thursday

[Dolorous Menhir]

Sir Thursday;117237 said:

Fallen Dragon Spoilers...

Well, it's not a strong ending.

Quote

The A Second Chance at Eden collection has some very good short stories in it - most of them have a neat twist to conclude them, and they are pretty much DEM free (except perhaps for the one with Calvert in it...and the DEM is kind of the point in that one)

I know, that's why I excepted the short stories when I was making my point. A twist ending in a sub-100 page short story is one thing. Waving a magic wand to finish 1000+ page series is something else entirely.

[Sir Thursday]

Dolorous Menhir;117245 said:

I know, that's why I excepted the short stories when I was making my point. A twist ending in a sub-100 page short story is one thing. Waving a magic wand to finish 1000+ page series is something else entirely.

Oops, I misread your previous post. Restated something you already knew...I thought you hadn't read the short stories...


Sir Thursday

[Reborn]

I enjoy reading The Wheel of Time very much, they were the books that introduced me to fantasy, and they will always have a special place in my heart. For all that, Crossroads of Twilight was a horrible book and only because of the fact that I already was aware of how awful it was prior to reading it did I survive the disappointment. Luckily, Knife of Dreams was both a major improvement and one of the best books in the serie.

I would almost rank A Feast for Crows as a bigger disappointment than Crossroads of Twilight, not that I prefer CoT, no, A Feast for Crows was light-years better than that book, but with A Feast for Crows I had expected a masterpiece, a book equal in brilliance to match A Storm of Swords, and it disappointed me as no other book has managed to do. I long for A Dance with Dragons, though.

[Werthead]

Dolorous Menhir;117230 said:

I've read every book Peter F Hamilton has published, and - excepting the short stories - I think he is incapable of writing a good ending.

Odd. I thought the endings to each of the Greg Mandel Trilogy were pretty good. Night's Dawn's ending may be to some extent deus ex machina, but at least it was set up in the first book. DEM endings are more annoying when they come out of nowhere.

[Astra]

I have forgotten about another book that was a huge disappointment.
Bag of Bones by S. King. It was impossible to read.

[Tom]

Anyone read 'Cry of the Newborn' by James Barclay? The dialogue in that was atrocious. No off-topic conversation and just generally the talking was completely unbelievable. He also couldn't decide on a register for the communication. Those fourteen-year olds... Hell, I write better dialogue than that, and I don't think mine is that good.

[QuickTidal]

Blind;107756 said:

Bakker - The Warrior-Prophet. I had liked TDtCB, thought it was interesting, even though I hated Kellhus. But TWP was really annoying, and often dull. I'll probably still read the last book, to find out what happens, but I won't read his next trilogy.

Tad Williams - Shadowmarch. Enjoyed reading all his books, but this one felt like a rehash of MSaT.

Robin Hobb - Everything written after the original Assassin trilogy

Yeah, I agree with all these. Shadowmarch DID have promise in the beginning, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to give the second in the series a go (I'm a glutton for punishment)

The Hobb thing is the reason I never bothered with the new series, or the Ship series.

I HATE Bakker. Nuff said.

Glen Cooks Black Company books.....uggg.....atrociously written, sorry to the fans of this series, I read two of them and can't stomach the haphazard writing style.

I love aSoIaF, but A Feast For Crows is really bad for the most part, and I hope ADWD is better (and should be cause Jon Snow and the Wall man!!). It made me think that he should have stuck to his original plan of the story advancing the ten years (?) it was supposed to after ASOS.

Oh, and don't get me started about Dawnthief.......gawdawful...

[williamjm]

Werthead;119040 said:

Odd. I thought the endings to each of the Greg Mandel Trilogy were pretty good. Night's Dawn's ending may be to some extent deus ex machina, but at least it was set up in the first book. DEM endings are more annoying when they come out of nowhere.

I thought the ending to Judas Unchained was fine. The Gred Mandel books also had reasonable endings, as did the novella "Watching Trees Grow".

[Sir Thursday]

I didn't really like the ending to the Greg Mandel series...it's been a while since I read The Nanoflower, but I distinctly remember feeling that it was too separate from the rest of the series.

Spoiler

He did insinuate that there was an alien with that plant thing, I guess...but I still felt it just suddenly appeared. Maybe I'm forgetting something, it's been a long time since I read it

Sir Thursday

[Dolorous Menhir]

williamjm;119661 said:

I thought the ending to Judas Unchained was fine. The Gred Mandel books also had reasonable endings, as did the novella "Watching Trees Grow".

The ending to Judas Unchained sucked. I didn't read 2000 pages just to get a big stupid car chase for a climax.

I suppose I was a bit harsh with the Mandel books, they are good. And I was wrong with my "read every book" comment, since I've never read this "Watching Trees Grow" (never seen it in the shops either).

But you have to concede, the endings are a huge weakness in his books. Especially Misspent Youth, that was abyssmal.

[temp]

I generally have a pessimistic attitude when it comes to reading (or movies for that matter). When you start, go in with the attitude that you are expecting it to suck. Then if it sucks, you won't be dissappointed because you never had your hopes up. Conversely, if it's good, then it exceeds your expectations and you are happy.
The problem arises when the author previously did something good so that it raises your expectations, and then you are let down. Jordan is prime example of this.